The Death of Giulio Andreotti, the Political Giant Who Went to Mass Every Day, Marks a Milestone in European Hisory

Andreotti, who has died aged 94, was nicknamed the ‘Eternal One’ of Italian politics. He was the opposite of bunga-bunga loving Berlusconi

By Father Alexander Lucie-Smith

Giulio Andreotti, right, would 'never tell you what he was thinking' (Photo: PA)

The death of Giulio Andreotti, at the age of 94, marks a milestone in Italian, indeed European, history. Andreotti dominated Italian politics for decades, and was nicknamed l’eterno, the “Eternal One”. With its plethora of parties and its endless revolving door governments, Italy’s first republic seemed terribly unstable, but this was all smoke and mirrors: every one of those governments, up until 1992, contained Andreotti, either as Prime Minister (a post he held seven times) or in some senior position, or else several members of il corrente Andreottiano, his faction of the Christian Democrat party, which was nicknamed the gens Julia, the Julian clan. By happy coincidence, Andreotti’s wife was called Livia, a name all fans of Robert Graves will be familiar with.

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